Mind, Guts, Agony
by nashimo
Summary: Three Trainers journey on the Warrior's Pilgrimage, dedicated to perfecting their battling skills.
1. Chapter 1

The walls began to reflect the morning light as Edda sat in meditation. She had been planning Pokemon strategies through the Hour of the Ox, and since then had alternated 15-minute sleep sessions with 45-minute periods of contemplation. Her twin albino Glameow napped on either side of her; their spiral tails floated in the air, twitching as they dreamt. On the other side of the room, the boys snored like donkeys.

The morning light took shape and brought detail to the room: the Hour of the Dragon. Edda sprang silently to her feet. On the other side of the room, Pablo's Megatross were already observing her. They had learned her routine, though she varied it sometimes, just to keep them on their guard. Pablo was a huge rumpled pile snoring loudly in the corner.

Rolled up against the wall, wrapped tightly in a cloak, was Raed. He was starting to shiver and twitch, in a pattern that had repeated twice so far that night, as he descended in to REM sleep and to the nightmares that he was unable to avoid. Edda considered kicking Raed awake and sparing him his last set of nightmares but decided against it. Raed's Musharna lay beside him, ready to help him with any dream he couldn't handle. And besides, he and Edda were rivals.

Edda paid little conscious attention to the next several hours, especially once Pablo woke up. Pablo had a tendency to speak great loud boisterous nonsense, and had singled out Edda for frequent teasing. Edda kept him around to test her mental discipline. She had resolved to disarm him permanently when next she battled him.

As they left the abandoned temple in which they had slept, Pablo's chatter was momentarily quieted by giant gulps of sweetened water he took. Edda sidled up to Raed. "What did you see in your dreams last night?" she asked him.

"Great destruction," he said. "I was a tree, and I was burned. I was the earth, and I was turned to sand. I was life, and I fled. And if I did not flee..." He shivered.

"Then Musharna woke you," Edda said.

"No," said Pablo. "Musharna only helps me when my dreams are about to kill me."

Edda nodded. Behind them, Pablo's voice began again, as he attached his Vest and sent out orders to the Beldum and Metang that had been patrolling that night.

"What will cause this destruction?" Edda said. "And when will it happen?"

"Humans will cause the destruction," Raed said. "And it will happen early in the day."

Pablo appeared in the doorway and began commenting with guffaws on their lack of hygiene, their inability to create a decent breakfast, and the extent to which Pablo was a superior Trainer. Nodding to Raed, Edda began walking. Raed, Pablo, and Pablo's Metagross followed.

Over the next hour, Edda learned many things about Pablo, none of which she found particularly interesting. She was told about the country village in which he grew up, the Pokemon he had as a child, the Pokemon he had WANTED as a child, the Pokemon he had said he had NOT wanted as a child (although he really had) and every person who had Pokemon that he had wanted as a child but did not have. He was halfway through a detailed discussion of a childhood acquaintance's Swinub, when suddenly he stopped and said: "What's that?"

They had emerged from a forest path. In a clearing ahead, a stick had been jabbed into the ground. An envelope was attached to the top of it.

"Go get it," Pablo said to Raed.

"N- No way..." Raed said. He felt faint any time he walked for more than a couple of minutes, and was now desperately out of breath. "Send a bird."

Pablo reached to the metal mest he had attached to his pear-shaped, oversized body. He pushed a button. A Pokeball shot out of his vest, splitting open to produce a Spearow. "Get the envelope!" Pablo said, then he started to tell a story in which he had lost an envelope that had he had never actually been given.

"Do you think-" Raed said.

"Yes," Edda said. "Listen. Nothing in the forest is moving."

"Pablo, be careful," Raed said as the Spearow returned and dropped the envelope into Pablo's hand.

"Careful?" Pablo laughed. "What's there to be careful about? You're hanging with the most powerful Pokemon Master in the world!"

Pablo opened the envelope, and read the small card inside.

"Hah, that's funny," he said, holding the card up to Edda and Raed. "What do you think it means?"

On the card, Edda read the words: "Prepare for trouble."


	2. Chapter 2

"Incoming," said Pablo's Metagross through the voice synthesizer attached to it.

Pablo dropped the note and furiously pushed buttons on the metal vest he wore. Pokeballs shot out of the vest like machine-gun bullets. "E.T.A.?" He asked.

"Ten seconds," said the Metagross's voice.

"Look!" said Raed, pointing up at numerous shapes in the sky. Edda looked towards where he was pointing. "Missiles! They're headed right towards us! What're we gonna do?"

"Just relax," Pablo snorted, and started pushing buttons even faster. The Pokeballs were a blur as the flew out. "Nine," said the Metagross. "Eight... seven... six..." When the Metang got to two, Pablo pressed one last set of buttons: "Steelix, bunker!" he said. Six Steelix emerged from his Vest, throwing themselves into shape around them.

The whole world shuddered in darkness as the missiles crashed into the Steelix bodies protecting them.

"Status?" Pablo said in the darkness.

The Metagross spoke through its computer-synthesized voice: "Yellow team: sixty percent deployment, led by Metagross Alpha. Blue team: eighty percent deployment, led by Metagross Beta. Green team: thirty percent deployment, led by Metagross Gamma."

"I've got to get them out faster next time," Pablo said. "Mismagius, give us some lights. And show us what's going on out there."

A dim ball of light appeared, followed by three lit circles hanging in the air. Behind them, a Mismagius now floated, concentrating. Each of the three lit circles showed a different scene outside. One scene showed dozens of Eelektriks wallowing in a large pool of water. Another scene showed several units of Squirtles shooting water into the air. A final one showed two Celebi controlling several small tornadoes of leaves.

"Metagross team leaders report deployment maneuvers complete, energy acceleration flowing, ready for counter-attack," said the Metagross in the bunker.

Another round of missiles crashed into the Steelix bunker.

"Who are we looking at?" said Pablo, a serious look on his face now.

"Metagross team leaders report approximately 20 mobile artillery launchers, 10 tanks, 30 armored cars. Approximately 350 heavily-armed enemy fighters, black uniforms with the letter R."

"Hit 'em," Pablo said. "Team Yellow on tanks and launchers. Blue on the rest. Hold Green in reserve."

"Roger," said the Metagross. There were great crashing sounds from outside. The scenes shown by the Mismagius now displayed a small army of Raichu sending lightning bolts against the tanks and launchers, and several dozen Golducks sending crashing waves of water against the enemy fighters. Where the water and electricity mixed, the enemy were shocked and swept away. As the Pokemon began to run out of energy, the Eelektriks and Squirtles renewed their energy supplies.

"Team leaders report enemy now at 40% strength, declining rapidly," said the Metagross in the bunker. "Our casualties are slight. Enemy leader is sending us a message by Pokemon Psychic."

"Mismagius, show it," said Pablo.

Mismagius showed a new screen, with two humans in "R" uniforms.

"Prepare for trouble, as we've already said!" said a woman with black hair.

"And you better surrender, or end up dead!" said a man with brown hair.

Pablo cleared his throat. "Retreat now, and I won't chase you," he said.

"You interrupted our motto!" the woman said. A burst of water hit her and she spluttered for a moment. Then she continued: "Anyway, I'm Deebee, and this is Cooper, and it's time for you to give up!"

"Status?" Pablo whispered to the Metagross.

"Enemy at 10% strength. They will not last much longer."

Pablo looked at the screens again. "I don't negotiate with powerless enemies," he said. "We are Trainers following the Warrior's Pilgrimage. Do not disturb us again."

"But- But-" said the man.

"Send in Green team," Pablo said to the Metagross.

On Mismagius' screens, they could see great gusts of wind, full of leaves, crashing into the enemy. Behind them advanced squads of Scythers, directing the leaves and brandishing their claws.

The two enemy leaders were soaked, fried, and windblown all at the same time, as they tried to hold on to the armored car they were on. Finally they could hold on no more. "Team Rocket's breezing off again!" they said, as they flew into the sky. With that, the remaining enemy units began a panicked retreat.

"Shall we pursue?" asked the Metagross.

"No," said Pablo. "Just keep an eye on them until we're ready to stand down." And then he got a big grin on his face, and began discoursing on the value of alertness, interspersing numerous stories from his childhood.

"Who do you think those people were?" asked Raed.

"I do not know," said Edda. But they will appear again." She was thoughtful, but not only because of the enemies they had just discovered. While watching Pablo battle, she had seen at least three different weaknesses in his strategy.

As the Steelix opened up the bunker they had created with their bodies, she saw that much of the forest had been damaged. Trees had been felled by artillery fire, lightning attacks, or water.

"Looks like your prophecy was right," Edda said to Raed.

"Yes..." Raed said. "But I wish it hadn't been." He looked out at the crushed trees, the torn-up earth. "Pablo, can I talk to your Celebi?"

Pablo agreed verbosely. Raed approached the Celebi, and talked to them quietly. Within moments the Celebi were dancing over the forest and the lands, repairing the damage that the humans had done.

Edda watched this too, and judged. She knew that it was possible for Raed or Pablo to defeat her in a Pokemon battle. But she also saw numerous ways she could win.


End file.
